CBS: Obama administration knew all along that Benghazi was terror attack

Ed MorrisseyPosted at 8:01 am on October 28, 2013

CBS’ 60 Minutes revisited the Benghazi terror attack last night, laying out the evidence that the attack was orchestrated by al-Qaeda on the anniversary of 9/11. It was “a planned, sophisticated attack” by AQ, and two security advisers have stepped forward to blow the whistle — as both repeatedly tried to do before the attack:

This to me seems especially damning — and unknown to me in the specifics until last night:

Green Beret Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andy Wood, was one of the top American security officials in Libya. Based in Tripoli, he met with Amb. Stevens every day.

The last time he went to Benghazi was in June, just three months before the attack. While he was there, al Qaeda tried to assassinate the British ambassador. Wood says, to him, it came as no surprise because al Qaeda — using a familiar tactic — had stated their intent in an online posting, saying they would attack the Red Cross, the British and then the Americans in Benghazi.

Lara Logan: And you watched as they–

Andy Wood: As they did each one of those.

Lara Logan: –attacked the Red Cross and the British mission. And the only ones left–

Andy Wood: Were us. They made good on two out of the three promises. It was a matter of time till they captured the third one.

Lara Logan: And Washington was aware of that?

Andy Wood: They knew we monitored it. We included that in our reports to both State Department and DOD.

Andy Wood told us he raised his concerns directly with Amb. Stevens three months before the U.S. compound was overrun.

Andy Wood: I made it known in a country team meeting, “You are gonna get attacked. You are gonna get attacked in Benghazi. It’s gonna happen. You need to change your security profile.”

Lara Logan: Shut down–

Andy Wood: Shut down–

Lara Logan: –the special mission–

Andy Wood: –“Shut down operations. Move out temporarily. Ch– or change locations within the city. Do something to break up the profile because you are being targeted. They are– they are– they are watching you. The attack cycle is such that they’re in the final planning stages.”

Lara Logan: Wait a minute, you said, “They’re in the final planning stages of an attack on the American mission in Benghazi”?

Andy Wood: It was apparent to me that that was the case. Reading, reading all these other, ah, attacks that were occurring, I could see what they were staging up to, it was, it was obvious.

This segment doesn’t directly address what happened at the White House during and after the attack. The segment, helmed by Lara Logan, focuses on what happened in Benghazi before and during the attack. It does, however, raise the question about why no military forces were sent to rescue the Americans despite the hours-long attack on the annex. Gregory Hicks, one of the whistleblowers who blew the Obama administration talking points out of the water in his testimony to Congress, still cannot understand why the US was not prepared to protect its assets in Benghazi.

This should serve as a springboard for a demand for more answers from the White House, and also from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.